“Are you sure this is the right place?” I said as we stepped out of the carriage. The area was less than reputable. Tucked far out of reach from the main highways and broad streets of the capital, this neighborhood seemed almost forgotten. Tall apartment-style insulae with cracked plaster and missing roof tiles crowded around the dark and dank cobblestone alleyways. This was especially noticeable since it was both midday with a warm and dry wind breeze blowing through the city. More than a few chamber pots were clearly left outside for too long awaiting pickup. It was to the point that one could almost see the smell lines radiating out of them. It was also a clear sign that the area wasn’t wealthy enough to be connected to the cities drainage system.

“Unaffiliated dwarves have it tough. When you leave your clan, you get to keep at most a hammer and the clothes on your back. Deserters can't be physically harmed, but clans practice shunning them,” replied Tanit as I offered a gentleman-like hand to help her down. We had just touched upon etiquette in my morals class the day before and despite my misgivings I was trying to master their ways. When in Rome, I suppose.

“She’s new enough in town that she won’t have made any real connections so far, but that also means she won’t have made enough money to move into a decent shop,” she continued once her feet were on the ground.

“And you couldn’t find any masters that weren’t working out of a scum-ridden neighborhoo-“ Caterina began to say.

“Cat!” I hissed cutting her off. There was a beggar seated on the side of the road not more than a few feet in front of us and she was basically calling him out. “We uh meant no offense mister,” I said after turning my attention to the man. Then I awkwardly deposited a few coins into the jar next to him.

“Thank you, milord.” The man coughed out the words like a longtime smoker. He was mostly covered in rags and dirt. His old face was wiped with large marks of gunk.

“What are you on about?” Asked Caterina casually before lifting her foot up. “The street cleaners clearly haven’t touched this place in too long, someone should lodge a complaint.” There was a layer of dirt and mud and whatever else on the bottom of her sandal. Around us were some well-defined footprints in the grime from where we stepped.

“…nothing,” I replied as dismissively as I could. Though, the slightest amount of heat radiated out of my face.

“Well, why don’t we save our doubts for when we actually meet the woman?” Said Tanit, as she walked up to the enchanter’s door. She flipped a few coins to the beggar, opened the door, and strode in.

Caterina gave me a shrug before offering a knowing smile. Then she followed Tanit through the door, but not before tossing a noticeably larger amount of coin than either her companions had.

“Whatever,” I muttered under my breath before following them both inside.

The enchanter’s studio was a single-room studio on the ground level at the far end of a larger building. A chimney stuck out from the side. It was constructed of different materials than the brick building and seemed haphazardly slapped on.

The interior was the definition of controlled chaos. The immediate area in front of the door was blocked off from the rest of the room by a wrap-around counter with display cases containing various engraved items. While the engravings were incredibly complex, most of the pieces were made from common metals and stones.

On the left side of the room, diagrams of all sizes were left strewn around the drawing desk. Some were pinned to the wall; others were roughly rolled up and hung out of various shelves. To the right, a few different workbenches with various tools and unfinished projects surrounded a compact anvil and forge.

At one of the tables, was a dwarf with its back to the door. With small, swift hits from a very tiny hammer, it was slowly pushing some type of chisel to shave off metal from whatever it was working on. Each hit was abnormally loud and produced a burst of multicolored mana from the impact.

When Tanit opened the door, a small bell jingled, though it clearly hadn’t taken our prospective dwarf out of her work. How could it have, since it was dwarfed by the ringing her own work produced.

We waited around for what felt like minutes, though it was probably less than that before Caterina began to grow impatient and soon started to pace around. At first, I could hear a few grumbles coming from her, then she gave the bell attached to the door another ring.

Nothing happened. We waited a little while longer. Then, more annoyed mutterings came from Caterina could be heard. Finally, she gave the bell a few furious rings. She stopped for a moment and gave it another ring for good measure.

The dwarf still didn’t look up. It just steadily hammered away, removing small chips and flakes of gold.

“Should we tap her on the shoulder?” I asked.

“Never intrude on a Dwarf’s workspace. My father claims it’s akin to someone getting into your bed without permission,” replied Tanit.

Seeing the writing on the wall, I sat cross-legged on the floor, which was surprisingly clean for this neighborhood. The floor was well swept and the counters and glass cases were well polished. Which was another oddity of Aurelia. Glasswork was far too advanced for the era. I expected at most to see rough colored glass but was surprised to find the type of clear glass you'd expect from a a more modern society. The rich villas in the city and even many of the buildings on campus sported nice glass windows. This hadn't fully trickled down to the commoners who still relied mostly on wooden shutters and curtains meaning the glass was seen as a luxury good, but it was still notable enough.

“I guess we’ll be here a while,” I said. Caterina gave the bell another jingle in response. Still no change.

“Enough! I’ll get her attention,” Caterina said before flipping up the counter's hatch-door. Tanit reached out and grabbed her wrist before she could take more than a few steps. The movement jerked her away from the counter hard enough that she stumbled.

Typically, something like this would not be notable. Horseplay and platonic skin-ship were more the norm at the academy. Aurelians generally didn’t shy away from physical contact. Caterina was a noticeable outlier. She was an ice queen, a villainess. Her reputation for isolation preceded her. In the books and in prior semesters something like this would have warranted serious retribution. Even in our group of… companions, she maintained her distance. Hell, even I held my breath when Tanit grabbed her, and I was the guy who knew the best that she (probably) wouldn’t have some rage-ridden reaction.

“Engraving an enchantment is incredibly tedious, if you go over there and startle her do you think she’ll be happy when it causes some costly mistake?” said Tanit.

Caterina shook Tanit’s hand off roughly before retracting it. Anger flashed in her eyes for a moment before she replied. “I don’t see the issue, if there’s a mistake I’ll just compensate her for it.”

“Or we lose out on her business because you’ve caused an irreparably bad first impression,” said Tanit. “It’s happened before. My house lost an entire ore delivery contract with Clan Suvia over some perceived slight.”

“Well, it isn’t like she has the kind of negotiating room that an entire clan does, though. I mean look at the conditions she’s working with,” I chimed in.

Caterina nodded in agreement before adding, “I thought you were a bold swashbuckling merchant.”

“Do you know the work my people put into this for you?” replied Tanit. “Don’t use a mage Tanit, they might be compromised. Don’t work with a clan, they might tip somebody off Tanit. Gah, finding this woman was like shoot a shallows minnow in a school of carps!” she continued in an exasperated tone.

“On the other hand, patience is a virtue, and we have time to kill,” I offered.

“Aye, I agree child.” A distinctly low, but still feminine voice said. We all turned to see the very dwarf we were arguing over leaning against the counter. Somehow we didn’t hear her stop working.

Maybe I should really work on my situational awareness. I thought.

“See this chunk out of my arm? Accidentally looped an engraving circuit and turned an incomplete sword into shrapnel right on my workbench,” she said as she rolled up her sleeve. An ugly scar could be seen right above the woman’s elbow. Aside from that distinctive piece, the woman resembled your typical dwarf. She had a long brown leather apron with a few tools hanging from it. On her head, she had a leather Phrygian cap with ear protectors dangling around her neck. I thought she was sporting a beard, but instead, her dark brown hair was tied in a braid underneath her chin and further tucked behind her apron.

“Wha… it is a pleasure to meet you, Lady Faris.” Tanit was momentarily too stunned to talk but recovered quickly. “I’m from House Maggonid, we sent a runner a few days ago notifying you of a special business opportunity.”

“Aye, I remember something like that, what can I do you for?”

At that, Caterina removed a fine silken pouch from her the folds in her robe and tossed it over to the dwarf. “We need someone to diagnose this, discreetly,” she said as Faris unfolded the pouch.

When she laid her eyes on the ring, she let out a whistle. “By the old gods, that gem is from the homelands,” she said in low voice.

“There’s more than that, someone tampered with it. We need you to find … whatever is wrong with it.” Caterina explained.

“You want me to identify the issue…and then fix it?”

“No. We believe someone added an extra enchantment, we just need confirmation about what it does and a professional testimony from you,” I interjected.

“I do like the ring though, so if you believe in your ability to remove the issue, I wouldn’t be opposed to that in the future.” Replied Caterina. Then she pulled out another silk pouch, this one bulging with coins, and laid it down on the counter in front of Faris. “So can you do it?”

“Hah, I know when not to spit on an ore vein,” replied Faris before putting her hand out.

Instead, Caterina unrolled a contract scroll and laid it onto the counter next to the pouch. “State your terms, sign, then I’ll shake.”

The beggar lounged in his usual spot as those colorful youth exited that new dwarf’s workshop and began filing back into their fancy carriage.

“Cat! I can’t believe you agreed to build her an entire workshop upon completion…in the noble ward no less…” muttered that green-eyed girl while gesticulating wildly.

“When did I allow you to call me Cat?” came the voice of the arrogant girl with silver hair from inside the carriage.

The beggar picked out one of the coins that she had dropped into his collection jar and held it up to block out the sun with a smile. Not in his wildest expectations did he think a haul like this would show up. He looked over just in time to see the same green-eyed girl watching him out the window with her own smile.

After the group exited the street he got up with his money and wobbled to the nearest alley where a couple of half-starved orphans were laying about. He distributed the coppers and some of the silvers among them with orders to bring back food for everyone. The oldest among them, a far too scrawny blonde boy was about to run off with the rest before the beggar pulled him aside.

“Not you. I gotcha a gold coin marked for you if you run over to Minas’s little hideout and tell him to meet me here. Something interesting just came up," the Beggar explained to the boy before flashing the same gold coin he was eyeing up moments ago.